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Ireland should “drown the shamrock” with water instead of alcohol this St. Patrick’s Day, according to Minister of State Patrick O’Donovan.
O’Donovan said there was a “massive failure” to control alcohol sales before Christmas, leading to a “very high price.”
He called for a halt to the sale of alcohol, which he said had caused some “scandalous scenes” during the pandemic in Ireland.
“I hope I’m not on your show next week saying look at what happened on St. Patrick’s Day,” he told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne program.
“It’s amazing what some people have done to the rest of the community in the last 12 months for fun,” he added.
“More and more people are getting the message that clowning around has caused tremendous damage, unfortunately what we saw in the run-up to Christmas: it was the gatherings around funerals that did a great deal of damage.
“Then we had the sheebeens: the guards had to go out, putting themselves and their families in danger, to deal with these Yahoos.”
‘Let it go’
O’Donovan said that St. Patrick’s Day this year was a day to garden, to work outside the house and to “stay away” from alcohol. “It is not a day to see how the virus infiltrates homes and takes off,” he warned.
The minister said he was just trying to impress people “we can see the finish line later.”
“I’m just asking people to stick with it, it’s very difficult, we all know that, but tomorrow is a day, let it go, let it go,” he said.
People could go for a walk with another home. They should not have a picnic, not be together “to have fun in the park where it will become a social event. No children playing while parents sit on a bench sipping a latte. “
Any self-respecting licensee who will stand inside a table tomorrow and hand out pints will want his head examined.
There was a “need to try to keep it under control,” he said. “We do not deal with the sale of alcohol before Christmas, we pay a very high price.”
O’Donovan said that any licensee selling “pints and cocktails” during the protests “would want their head examined.”
“Any self-respecting licensee who’s going to stand at a table tomorrow and hand out pints will want their head examined. You don’t need a license to have a little police force, ”he said.
He warned that when the license renewal comes, Gardaí could object and “tell the judge that this guy sold pints and cocktails in the middle of a protest.”
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